Dry docks: Carlsbad making progress on Pecos River cleanup

CARLSBAD >> Each year in early spring, water levels are lowered in the Pecos River so that the city of Carlsbad and riverfront residents can do maintenance and repair work on docks or other features.

This year, the city has undertaken a larger project that involves the riverfront from the swimming area to the beach and the man-made island.

For Casen and Kyler Capello, ages 4 and 5, what they noticed was the absence of water around the island. Playing under the watch of dad Damian Capello, on the rock steps higher up on shore, they could bounce a ball all the way to the island, then retrieve it without getting so much as a foot wet.

Martha Mauritson/ Current-Argus
Four-year-old Casen Capello retrieves his ball, which bounced 50 feet or more from the rock steps at the edge of the park to rest near the high and dry island. Casen, his dad and his brother were relaxing in the Beach Park Friday afternoon.

Tom Carlson, the director of public works for the city, said the work at the river represents several smaller projects that are being taken care of at one time.

"We removed debris from the swimming area that was brought in during the floods," he said.

And as is done most every year, workers will haul in truckloads of sand to replace the sand that washes away from the beach throughout the year.

When workers began to put a new deck on the footbridge to the island, the wood was so old it collapsed, Carlson said.

The bridge has been rebuilt in steel, and is now being painted.

In fact, workers are replacing rotten wood wherever and whenever it is found.

The list goes on, Carlson said, with the scraping and water blasting of the large dam.

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Across the river from the swim area, crews are placing large blocks of wire-enclosed rocks, which serve to prevent erosion.

And an act of generosity by a local family has workers building a splash pad, Carlson said. He described it as a large concrete pad with plumbing underneath so that when someone steps in certain places, water shoots out to splash them.

April 15 was the original target date for completion of the river work, during the time a number of schools in southeast New Mexico and west Texas take Spring Break. That may be a little optimistic, but he hopes the city can start refilling the river a week or two early.

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